On October 10, 1920, Bill Wambsganss ended a World Series threat without throwing the baseball to anyone. Cleveland's second baseman caught a line drive, stepped on second base and tagged the runner approaching from first. Three outs, one fielder, one uninterrupted sequence: an unassisted triple play in Game 5 against the Brooklyn Robins.
The fifth inning had begun with consecutive singles by Pete Kilduff and Otto Miller. With runners at first and second, Brooklyn pitcher Clarence Mitchell hit a liner toward the middle of the field. The runners were moving, leaving them exposed when Wambsganss caught the ball. Kilduff was doubled off second, and Miller arrived close enough for the final tag.
The play is unusual because its three required outs have to fit within a single defender's reach. A caught ball supplies the first. A runner leaving a base too soon supplies another. The remaining runner has to be nearby at exactly the wrong moment. Good positioning and quick decisions matter, but the geometry of the play must cooperate too.
It was already a remarkable afternoon at League Park. Elmer Smith had hit the first grand slam in World Series play, and Cleveland pitcher Jim Bagby had homered as well. Cleveland won 8–1, then completed the championship by winning the next two games.
Wambsganss' contribution gave that crowded day of milestones its most distinctive image. Baseball usually celebrates teamwork through a relay or a double play passed from glove to glove. Here, the field briefly compressed around one player. Catch, touch the bag, make the tag: a full inning's worth of outs before another teammate needed the ball.